Trump Suggests Pelosi Is Putting USMCA Trade Deal at Risk

(L) President Donald Trump speaks to the press before departing the White House in Washington, on Oct. 25, 2019. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images) (R) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) looks on during a news conference discussing H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 16, 2019. Zach Gibson/Getty Images

President Donald Trump suggested on Twitter that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is putting a trade deal between the United States, Mexico, and Canada at risk.

“Nancy Pelosi will go down as the least productive Speaker of the House in history,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning.

“She is dominated by AOC Plus 3 and the Radical Left. Mexico and Canada, after waiting for 6 months to be approved, are ready to flee—and who can blame them? Too bad!” he wrote, referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday that Democrats in the House are waiting for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to have stronger worker protections.

But Trump, in a cabinet meeting, said she is allowing the impeachment inquiry to consume the agenda of lawmakers in the House.

“We can’t get USMCA approved because” of Pelosi, he said.

“And I’ve been told—and who knows if this is so, but I think it’s so; I have pretty good authority on it—that’s she’s using USMCA, because she doesn’t have the ... impeachment votes,” the president added to reporters. “So she’s using USMCA to get the impeachment vote.”

Last week, Pelosi told reporters that an agreement on USMCA is “imminent” and added believes “that if we can get this to the place it needs to be, which is imminent, that this can be a template for future trade agreements.”

“I’d like to see us get it done this year,” she said. “I mean, that would be my goal.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said House Democrats are dragging their feet on the measure.

“Tomorrow, I’m going to be paying attention to what we’re doing in the Senate,” McConnell told reporters last week. “House Democrats have enough time to continue their three-year-old obsession with impeaching the president, but they cannot find the time to pass a landmark trade deal that would create 176,000 new American jobs.”

Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) delivers remarks during a rally for the passage of the USMCA trade agreement in Washington on Sept. 12, 2019. Tom Brenner/Getty Images

In 2018, the United States, Mexico, and Canada agreed to replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with a newer version that would encourage more investment in U.S. factory jobs. The deal needs Congressional approval, with Democrats demanding more environmental and pro-worker provisions.

Canada previously said that it is waiting to move in unison with the United States on the deal

Mexican Economy Minister Graciela Marquez said that she was optimistic the deal would get done in the coming weeks, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Mexico has already approved the deal.

“Representative Pelosi has the commitment on our part to convince the outstanding representatives and union leaders in the United States,” she said in an interview, according to the news agency. “We have spoken with union leaders and we have made our commitment known.”